![Copyright 2021 by Brandon Presser Cover design by Pete Garceau Cover image - photo 1](/uploads/posts/book/326435/images/9781541758599.jpg)
Copyright 2021 by Brandon Presser
Cover design by Pete Garceau
Cover image iStock/Getty Images
Cover copyright 2021 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.
PublicAffairs
Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104
www.publicaffairsbooks.com
@Public_Affairs
First Edition: March 2022
Published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The PublicAffairs name and logo is a trademark of the Hachette Book Group.
The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Presser, Brandon, author.
Title: The far land : 200 years of murder, mania, and mutiny in the South Pacific / Brandon Presser.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : PublicAffairs, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021034506 | ISBN 9781541758575 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781541758599 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Presser, BrandonTravelPitcairn Islands. | Bounty Mutiny, 1789. | Pitcairn IslandsHistory. | Pitcairn IslandsDescription and travel.
Classification: LCC DU800 .P74 2022 | DDC 996.18dc23/eng/20211027
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034506
ISBNs: 9781541758575 (hardcover), 9781541758599 (ebook)
E3-20220106-JV-NF-ORI
For my grandpa
and his untold stories of the South Pacific
W hen I traveled to Pitcairn in 2018, it was not my intention to write a book about the infamous HMAV Bounty s mutineers and their descendants. But the longer I spent there, the more questions I had: How did forty-eight people come to live on an island impossible to access by commercial conveyance? And what really happened to their forebearers who settled on the lonely rock some two hundred years prior? Every time I peeled back the proverbial onion, I found another layer that seemed more unbelievable than the last. This operatic saga of treason and obsessionpaired with the abject strangeness of a modern society of castawayswas, quite simply, the most fantastical story I had ever come across in my fifteen-plus years as a journalist.
Its so incredible, in fact, that the history of the mutineers violent undoing reads more like an epic novel. But I can assure you that this is indeed a work of nonfictionevery sentence on every page was weighed and considered after three long years of rigorous research, combing through hundreds of resources from old captains logs and newspaper clippings to the other tomes penned by writers who have similarly descended down into the darkness of Pitcairn. Fact-finding continued beyond the library too; in-depth interviews and seminars with historians, psychologists, religious scholars, and experts on Polynesian culture helped paint a more fully formed perspective on both the causes and effects of tribalism, trauma, psychopathy, paranoia, and survival in the bleakest of conditions.
In the past, the Pitcairn chronicle has largely been illuminated through the mutineers point of view (Fletcher Christian in particular). Here, great care has been taken to dismantle the misogyny and racism inherent in the white, colonial male gaze, offering broader insight into how this diverse cast of characters grappled with the overwhelming adversity of their very real fates. Relative to the British sailors, little is known about their Tahitian consorts, whoin previous accounts of the Bounty s journeyhave been othered and infantilized through the use of broken English. In this version, the dialogue attributed to the women (and some of the secondary seamen) has been tweaked to more accurately reflect the reality that they were just as rational, cunning, and self-actualizing as the men long considered the heroes of this tale. This is the only rejiggering in an otherwise authentic recounting of what took place following historys favorite mutiny: eighteen years of solitude on the most remotely inhabited island in the entire world.
Enthusiasts and academics will find a comprehensive reference and bibliographical section at the end of this book detailing each piece used to put this puzzle together; it is my hope and intention, however, that you simply enjoy the narrative herein as a story whose details happen to be wickedly true.
THE BOUNTY CREWMEN
William Bligh : commander
John Fryer : master
Fletcher Christian : masters mate
Thomas Huggan (Doc) : surgeon
John Hallett : midshipman; Blighs protg
Thomas Hayward : midshipman; Blighs protg
Peter Heywood : midshipman; Christians protg
Edward Young : midshipman
William Brown : assistant gardener
Thomas Burkitt : able seaman
Charles Churchill : master-at-arms
Isaac Martin : able seaman
William McCoy : able seaman
John Mills : gunners mate
John Millward : able seaman
Matthew Quintal : able seaman
Alexander Smith : able seaman
Matthew Thompson : able seaman
John Williams : able seaman
THE TAHITIAN WOMEN
Mauatua : leader of the Tahitian women; Christians companion
Susannah : an aristocratic Tahitian; Youngs companion
Jenny : Mauatuas friend; a low-caste Tahitian
Faahotu : Mauatuas maid; a healer
Tevarua : Susannahs maid; Quintals companion
Obuarei : Susannahs maid; Smiths companion
Nancy : Tararos companion
Teatuahitea : Browns companion
Teio : McCoys companion; Baby Sullys mother
ON TAHITI
Teina : chieftain of a prominent Tahitian clan
Itia : Teinas wife
ON TUBUAI
Tamatoa : chieftain of western Tubuai
Tinarau : chieftain of southern Tubuai; Christians enemy
Taaroa : chieftain of northern Tubuai; Christians ally
THE POLYNESIAN MEN ON PITCAIRN
Tetahiti : Tubuaian warrior; Christians blood brother
Oha : Tubuaian teenager; Tetahitis cousin
Minarii : Tahitian boy
Teimua : Tahitian nobleman
Niau : Tahitian teenager
Tararo : nobleman from the island of Raiatea
THE DESCENDANTS (MODERN-DAY PITCAIRNERS)
Steve Christian : patriarch of the Christians
Olive Christian : Steves wife
Carol Warren : matriarch of the Warrens
Jay Warren : Carols husband
Isabel Christian : Steve and Olives granddaughter
Shawn Christian : Steve and Olives son; mayor
Meralda Warren : Jays sister
Simon Young : a recluse
JAMES NORMAN HALLS DESCENDANTS ON TAHITI
Kate Hall : granddaughter
Nancy Hall Rutgers : daughter; Kates aunt
Next page